UN: US must ensure rights for poor and blacks

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The United States should increase its efforts to ensure that the rights of poor people and blacks are respected in relief and reconstruction efforts, a UN rights body said Friday, noting its concern that both were "disadvantaged" after Hurricane Katrina. "In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it should increase its efforts to ensure that the rights of poor people, and in particular African-Americans, are fully taken into consideration in the reconstruction plans with regard to access to housing, education and health care," the UN Human Rights Committee said.